Monday, April 26, 2010

Lay a length of clear contact on the floor or table sticky side up. You can then stick the bits and pieces you have straight on to make a picture or collage. Once it's finished lay another sheet sticky side down over the top so it's all sealed. These look great stuck to the window or shower screen, especially if you use transluscent things in your picture like cellophane.

Today we made some simple wooden puppets. We used gingerbread man cutters to trace the body shapes onto thick paper, then cut clothing and hair for them using scrapbook paper. Bubble glued all of the pieces together and drew on the eyes, then we added some foam shapes for the smiley mouth. Lastly we taped our puppets securely onto giant pop sticks (from the local craft store).

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bubble is really interested in the beach and underwater animals at the moment, so we are creating a big beach mural across the loungeroom wall. We have put up yellow crepe paper for the sand, and blue for the water, and then set about making some sea creatures to live there.

SEAWEED:I painted sheets of old bubble wrap seaweed green, then when it was dry cut them into wavy strips.

CLAMSHELLS/OYSTERS:Were made using large white patty pans folded in half, with a white pompom glued inside as the pearl.

FISH:Flatten two patty pans, and cut one of them in half. Glue one of the halves and the other patty pan together as you can see in the photo, to create a body and tail. We kept ours simple and just glued on a googly eye, but you could use sequins to create scales and all sorts of decorations.

OCTOPUS:Flatten two pattypans and cut a chennile stick (pipecleaner) into eight lengths. Fold the ends over with pliers so they aren't sharp. Glue or tape the pipe cleaners onto the back of one pattypan and glue the other over the top. The pipecleaners act as legs and the patty pans become the octopus body.We attached googly eyes and a red circle foam shape cut in half as the mouth - I dont think Ive ever seen a smiling octopus before, he must be an undiscovered species :-D

JELLYFISH:Cut a rectangle of bubble wrap, then cut it into strips stopping a few mm from the top so that all the strips are all still held together (these are the stingers). Glue or tape half a white pattypan to the top as in the photo (this is the body of the jellyfish).We gave ours the same happy face as the octopus :-)

This is one of Bubbles favourite puzzles at the moment, so we added a new spin on it today. We put all the pieces into a bowl and drew them out one by one, completing each animal as we found both halves. Once an animal was completed we had to say the name, make the noise and do the movements of that animal. The kangaroo was our favourite and even Squeak loved this game :-)

I started a footprint canvas for each of my girls when they were born, taking one footprint every month from newborn until their first birthdays, and also taking handprints at 6 and 12 months. I love to see the progression as their little feet grew and became more defined, and now that we have two little treasures its interesting to see the differences and similarities. Footprint canvases can be made at any age and are such a sweet reminder of how tiny (or big!) those little feet and hands are. I used baby safe ink for my canvases, which I bought in ink pad form from Ebay.

Friday, April 16, 2010

It was so super hot today, the perfect day for some outside water play! We collected the 'warm up' water from our showers (as in the water that normally goes down the drain when we first turn the shower on and are waiting for it to heat up) in this big tub this morning, so I put it out on the balcony with some cups, food colouring and droppers. Bubble spent hours out there colouring the water (we ended up with some kind of vile black concoction that was meant to be tea :-D), squirting the droppers, pouring and watering everything in sight.

About Me

We have two little girls in one little apartment, 'Bubble' who is five and 'Squeak' who is now three. This Blog is a collection of ideas for taking all of the little things and making big opportunities to learn and create. You don't need a big budget or a big space to learn and have fun!
It is also a place to share our ideas as we help our two girls on their learning journey with Autism.
I hope you find some helpful ideas or activities here, and feel free to leave comments or ideas of your own :-)
PLEASE message me before copying or reproducing any of the photos or text on this Blog. All ideas and images remain the intellectual property of A Little Learning For Two. Thank you :)